What is Medieval History? PDF
Preview What is Medieval History?
CONTENTS Cover Series Page Title Page Copyright Dedication Preface to the Second Edition Preface and Acknowledgements 1 Framing the Middle Ages A Medieval Tale Medievalisms and Historiographies The Politics of Framing Notes 2 Tracing the Middle Ages Polyphony or Cacophony? Editions and Archives Using Documents Chronicles Charters Images Legal Records Notes 3 Reading the Middle Ages Anthropology Numbers and Statistics Archaeology, Science and Material Culture Texts and Cultural Theory Notes 4 Debating the Middle Ages Ritual Social Structures Globalisms Cultural Identities Power Notes 5 Making and Remaking the Middle Ages Notes Further Reading Index End User License Agreement List of Figures Map of Europe, c.900 Map of Europe, c.1360 Chapter 2 Figure 2.1(a) Early medieval handwriting, from a late eighth-century manuscript of biblical extracts (Cod… Figure 2.1(b) High medieval handwriting, from a twelfth-century manuscript of canon law (Cod. … Figure 2.1(c) Later medieval handwriting, in an extract from a civic court record, mid-fourtee… Figure 2.2 Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, month of February (Wikimedia Commons) Chapter 4 Map of World Systems What is History? series Peter Burke, What is Cultural History? 2nd edition Peter Burke, What is the History of Knowledge? John C. Burnham, What is Medical History? Pamela Kyle Crossley, What is Global History? Pero Gaglo Dagbovie, What is African American History? Shane Ewen, What is Urban History? Christiane Harzig and Dirk Hoerder, with Donna Gabaccia, What is Migration History? J. Donald Hughes, What is Environmental History? 2nd edition Andrew Leach, What is Architectural History? Stephen Morillo with Michael F. Pavkovic, What is Military History? 3rd edition James Raven, What is the History of the Book? Sonya O. Rose, What is Gender History? Barbara H. Rosenwein and Riccardo Cristiani, What is the History of Emotions? Hannu Salmi, What is Digital History? Brenda E. Stevenson, What is Slavery? Jeffrey Weeks, What is Sexual History? Richard Whatmore, What is Intellectual History? Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks, What is Early Modern History? What is Medieval History? Second Edition John H. Arnold polity Copyright © John H. Arnold 2021 The right of John H. Arnold to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published in 2008 by Polity Press This edition published in 2021 by Polity Press Polity Press 65 Bridge Street Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK Polity Press 101 Station Landing Suite 300 Medford, MA 02155, USA All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-3258-2 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Arnold, John, 1969- author. Title: What is medieval history? / John H. Arnold. Description: Second edition. | Medford, MA : Polity Press, 2021. | Series: What is history? | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “A rich and compelling overview of the sources and methods used by medieval historians”-- Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2020013070 (print) | LCCN 2020013071 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509532551 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509532568 (paperback) | ISBN 9781509532582 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Middle Ages. | Middle Ages--Study and teaching. | Medievalists. Classification: LCC D117 .A72 2020 (print) | LCC D117 (ebook) | DDC 940.1072--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020013070 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020013071 The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate. Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition. For further information on Polity, visit our website: politybooks.com Dedication This one is for Alex Preface to the Second Edition The primary purpose in producing a second edition is to include some new and additional material that relates to methods and debates that have become more prominent over the decade-and-a-bit since I wrote the original book. This mainly consists of expansions to sections within Chapter 3, and a new section on ‘Globalisms’ in Chapter 4. As the original introduction admits, ‘my coverage tends towards western Europe’, and this is still the case; but the original did already reach out to a wider geography on occasion, and I have here attempted to expand upon that enlarged sense of ‘the medieval’. I have also taken the opportunity to amend the text in minor ways in some other places, for greater clarity of expression and to include some additional examples where they are particularly illuminating. As with the original book, I remain deeply indebted to a host of colleagues and their work for my understanding of the middle ages; I should note, in particular, conversations with Ulf Büntgen, Matthew Collins, Pat Geary, Caroline Goodson, Monica Green, Eyal Poleg and Peter Sarris regarding recent work in science and archaeology. I am grateful to Pascal Porcheron at Polity for prompting my further work, and for the careful labours of Ellen MacDonald-Kramer, Sarah Dancy and others involved in its production. This second edition remains a work that aims to introduce ‘the medieval’, not in any sense claiming fully to represent it, or the fullness of its study. Preface and Acknowledgements This is a book about what historians of the middle ages do, rather than a history of the middle ages itself, though it will also provide a sense of that period. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of the historian’s task, and the conditions of its possibility. Chapter 1 discusses the idea of ‘the middle ages’ and its associations, and the foundational contours of academic medievalism. Chapter 2 looks at sources, the possibilities and problems that they present to the historian. Chapter 3 examines intellectual tools which medievalists have borrowed from other subject areas, and the insights they provide. Chapter 4 tries to indicate the shape of some key and broad- ranging discussions in current historiography. The final chapter addresses the very purpose of medieval history – its present and potential roles, in academic debate and society more broadly. The book is written neither as a blankly ‘objective’ report on the field, nor as a polemical call to arms, but as an engaged survey which seeks to both explain and comment upon the wider discipline. In what follows, I assume some knowledge of, and interest in, history on the reader’s part, but little prior sense of the medieval period (roughly the years 500–1500). Rather than always listing particular centuries, I have sometimes made use of the loose division of the medieval period into ‘early’, ‘high’ and ‘late’. All that is meant by this is c.500–c.1050, c.1050–c.1300 and c.1300–c.1500. My coverage tends towards western Europe, but I have tried to indicate the greater breadth of medievalism that exists beyond; to do more would take a much bigger book. I am indebted to various people in my attempt to chart, in so few pages, so large an area. Rob Bartlett, Mark Ormrod and Richard Kieckhefer all kindly answered particular queries at key moments. Rob Liddiard and Caroline Goodson helped me understand aspects of archaeology, Sophie Page did similarly with regard to magic and David Wells assisted my grasp of Wolfram von Eschenbach. Major thanks are due to those who very generously read and commented on individual chapters or indeed the whole book: two anonymous readers for Polity, Cordelia Beattie, Caroline Goodson, Victoria Howell, Matt Innes, Geoff Koziol and Christian Liddy; Matt and Geoff also kindly shared unpublished material with me. Any errors are entirely my own fault. Thanks are owed also to Andrea Drugan at Polity, for prompting me to write the book and for being an understanding editor during the process. As ever, I am grateful to Victoria and Zoë for giving me the support and the space in which to write. Lastly, this book is dedicated to all those who have taught me how to teach, from my parents, Henry and Hazel Arnold, to my students past and present.
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